Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1887-08-11
POOR PETER PATTERSON.
BY ROSE TERRY COOKE.

BY ROSE TERRY COOKE.
From the Boston Traveller.
He vas a tailorby trade. this Peter;
a tailor in the great city of Gotham.
He left the country in his first YOUTH;
answering an advertisement in a daily
paper, and being honest and plodding,
worked his way up till he had a bust
ness of his own, ceased to think Of lit.
tie Lydia Marsh, the sweetheart who
had never forgotten him, and became
a well-to-do man, with a stout. easy
going wife and a comfortable home in
an questionable quarter of the city.
He vas a little man, with pursed-up
lips, q short and upliited nose, twink
ling grey eyes, small and
sagacious, and a rather well.
worn chestnut wig, quite old
fashioned in its long curly ends and
very marked white parting. But the
wig was a part of Peter. He would
not have known himself or been recog-
nized by mis- customers in any other
head gear.
Peter vas fussy, priggish and self.
conceited, but thoroughly honest and
w~ell-meaning. There are very few
perfect people in this lower world, and
we might not find them comfortable
companions if there were more; human
nature is a mixture common to us all,
and to be unable to laugh at our
neighbors would deprive life of much
of its SAVIOR. Happily we are not
aware that our neiehbors are laughing
at us in the same fashion-a fact we
might not find so pungently agreeable.
Certainly our hero never suspected
that he could be laughed at.
In due course Of time Mrs. Peter
Patterson left her comfortable home
forever. In the twenty long years of
her married life she had been childless,
and yet never regretted it. She had,
in her want of other and nobler oc-
cupation, eaten too much and walk
ed too little; so one day she was
found ~lifeless on her parlor floor, from
an attack OF apoplexy.
Peter was sorry. He not crush
ed, but decently sorry. There had
been no romance in his marriage. He
had proposed to his wife because she
was a quiet. domestic sort of girl, who
would help him lay up money; and
she married him because lie asked her.
Literally this was her reason. She
had been a good. economical partner
for Peter, and when he had to break
up housekeeping and take to boarding
he felt Mrs. Patterson's loss far more
deeply than he had expected to. No
more savory little dishes that his soul
loved for dinner now; hisfavorite pud-
dings, with foamy sauce or fairy but
ter, were unknown at Mrs. McGuffey's
table. He had to eat the dry or reek.
ing slice of beef, the watery potatoes,
the tough cabbage, the bakery pies,
and make the best of them. But Gus
tom did not hard e his palate or his
digestion. He lost his appetite and
set up dyspepsia. There was no help
for it; he must marry again.
Now Peter had at least $50, 900
well invested. and on a lucky day was
offered $4,000 more for the stock
and custom OF his store, no longer a
mere tailor's shop but a great, prof
table clothing establishment. He
doubted and demurred a good
H. I
late in the Winter mince- pies
had set IN, poultry was tough
at the Sunday dinners that had made
one day in the week endurablet to him,
and his dyspepsia ragged. Dyspepsia
is the thumb screw, the rack, the tor
ture OF the water drop, the IRON boot,
all combined to a man; women can
endure a great deal better. Under
this awful dispensation Peter only
cared to get away from work and
anxiety. His deliberations ended
rapidly; he sold out his business, in.
vested his money and went back to
birmingham. where he was born, to
try change of air.
Here he endured the mild starvation
oil a country hotel, but he could ask
for certain hygienic viands and get
them. Mrs. Azariah Strong, who kept
the tavern, could boil him oatmeal
and bake him Graham bread; the
milk was undulterated and the eggs
fresh. Peter gradually got better,
and, besides, he found his old sweet.
heart, Lydia Marsh, still alive and
unmarried.
Lydia had grown tall, thin and grey
since he knew her; but she was still
meek, simple, affectionate and very
glad to renew her acquaintance with
Peter, who had found but few whom
he remembered left in birmingham,
and was glad OF one cordial welcome.
Now Lydia Marsh, having enough
money to live on as single women do
live in the country, and little enough
to do in her house, where n bound girl
and q cat constituted al the family,
had taken vioienl to the temperance
cause. 1t Is an odd thing that almost
all the old maids and widows in a
country town do become devoted
either to the work of temperance or
the cause of foreign missions. There
may be plenty OF white heather at
their door; their next neighbor may
be a drunkard, and abuse his wife and
children, but these specialties do not
interest them; they take to glittering
generalities even as ducks take to
water, and find u pleasant excitement
in figuring as officers of an organiza-
ton. The married women, with nus.
bands and children to provide for,
have ''otl,er fish to fry" and, with a
lew sad and painful exceptions, adj
here to their womanly daties in that
sweet, sale corner Ivy tine household
fire" made Tor good women.
| Now Peter was dull and lonesome
in his inn, and it became u matter OF
course with him TO spend his evenings
with Lydia. The amIable enthusiast
piled him with her own notions and
achievements till be became interested
deeply both in her and her work. The
old love, like Aaron's dry rod. bud
ded and blossomed, aud he made a
formal proposal to LYDIA, who mod
estly accepted aim for better or worse.
By this time Peter was extremely
bored by birmingham quiet and dull
ness. He was by no means DESTROYS
to spend the rest of his days
there. His dyspepsia was
better, and he discovered that LYDIA
was an excellent cook and housekeep.
or; consequently be persuaded her to
set an early day for the wedding, and